The Blind Spot

Years into the future, Vince Smith becomes the first man to attempt transit through a black hole.

Submitted:Dec 1, 2012
Reads: 124
Comments: 4
Likes: 2

An alarm screamed throughout the tiny ship. A shrill electronic
wake up call, sounding it's relentless warning to a groggy Vince
Smith. He finally dozed off a scant two hours ago after being
awake for the last 28 hours straight, making final calculations
and adjustments for the upcoming 'fall'.

"Alarm off!" he croaked. Thankfully, silence returned. The
whispering of the air circulation fans and the occasional click
and whir of an automatic switch being thrown, were the only
sounds competing with the steady heartbeat drumming in his ears.
He threw his legs over the side of the bunk and sat up allowing
his senses to return like a drunk awakening from a binge.

He rose to his feet and stumbled into the galley for a cup of
coffee and some nourishment to drive away the cobwebs and place
him in the world of the living once again. Ordering up hot coffee
and a high density nutrient bar, he sat studying the monitors.

Outside the stars, twisted and warped, amid all colors of the
rainbow, blazed in their final glory before dropping through the
event horizon and being eaten by the enormous black hole dead
ahead. Ahead lay what...infinity, death? The possibilities were
endless. No one has ever done what Vince was about to do. At
least no one under observation by thousands of eyes and
instruments that lay scattered in known space. "There may be no
coming back from this."he thought. At least that is what he was
told and every law of physics backed up the dire prediction. No
evidence could assure that either he or the ship would make it
through intact. The scientists had postulated that the larger the
hole the better his chances of surviving, which held little
comfort for him now. He was racing toward an event horizon as
wide as the whole of Earth's orbit at an ever-increasing
velocity. Pulled by the immense gravity of the singularity. This
was a giant, consuming every atom that happened to come too
close. When it swallowed more than it could ingest, great jets of
plasma and radiation would blast from the beast irradiating
everything in its path for light years. Thankfully, this beast
was not feeding now and the radiation from it was endurable with
full shields up.

Vince sat back sipping his coffee as he remembered an old
white-haired astrophysicist explaining what they knew or
theorized about black holes during one of his mission briefings.

"...matter that comes to close to the event horizon, that
boundary between where light can and cannot escape. In other
words, the region between what is in the universe as we know and
see it and what is forever lost to the black hole and the
mysteries beyond. If you were to free fall feet first into a
black hole the force of gravity would grow astronomically as you
approached its center. Since you're always weightless in free
fall it wouldn't be the incredible gravity of the black hole that
would kill you."

"Tidal force", that's what would get you. You'd be pulled apart
as a result of the difference in the gravitational force between
your feet and your head. Tidal force tries to accelerate what is
closest to the black hole faster than what is farther away. Your
body would stretch to the breaking point and then begin to break
apart. Finally, because your whole body would be moving toward
the same spot, the black hole's center, like dough through a
spaghetti maker you'd be reduced to a thin string of falling
atoms. The smaller holes are the worst because you can get much
closer to them before you cross their event horizons and the
change in the tidal force at that point would be catastrophic.
Black holes are......."

"Eye of the Needle, this is Control...do you read?" the
communication system squawked, thankfully jolting Vince back to
the here and now.

"Affirmative Control, I read you. You're starting to break up
though. It won't be long now and you'll be beyond my system's
capabilities to translate your signal."

"That's for sure, gravity is beginning to warp the feed on this
end too and all other telemetry is suffering. We have you at
about 8 minutes before transit." The voice said in a strange
phase-shifting hollow tone.

"Vince, this is Ted, ol' buddy. You still have 3 minutes to
change your mind, after that you won't have the power to escape
the gravity well. Are you sure you still want to go through with
this?" his friend said.

"Ted you know me better than that, I didn't come all this way to
turn around now. This is the chance of a lifetime and I'm not
about to back out." He wasn't really convinced of that but it
sounded brave.

"Ok Vince, God speed my friend. I hope to see you again. We have
some beer to drink when you return. Ya hear?" Ted signed off.

Vince's mind returned to what an old scientist had said during a
mission brief.

"Black holes come in all sizes, not all of them will kill you in
the same way, I just described a small one. The tidal force is
proportional to your size and your distance from the center of
the object pulling on you. A giant one, like the one you will be
visiting, is so big we're not sure just what will take place.
While the gravity is strong, the difference in gravity, from say
your head to your toes, nearer the event horizon is relatively
small. You might fall through in one piece, you just won't be
able to come back out and tell us about your trip. At least as
far as we know."

The reluctant explorer gazed at the monitors that filled the
bulkhead in front of him. Lights flashed and numbers scrolled.
Several screens were video sensors that gave him views outside
the ship. All around him was a fiery ring of dying stars being
drawn into that monstrous celestial vacuum cleaner, below that,
nothing. A darkness that escaped description. It was as though
there never was such a thing as light. The blackness was total,
so much so that it gave the viewer the illusion of being blind
when you looked at it. It reminded Vince of the time long ago
when he had explored caves in Northern California and turned off
his flashlight to see if his eyes could adjust to the total
darkness. They couldn't. After twenty minutes of darkness, try as
he would, no matter how close his hand was to his face he could
not see it. He could feel the heat from his hand on his face but
could not make out the slightest detail. This "Blind Spot" as it
was known, seemed to suck your mind into it. Researchers had
actually gone into trance and some even required psychological
treatment from staring at it for too long a time. Such were the
properties of black holes. Vince deliberately kept the viewers
off until now just for that reason.

On another screen was the view rearward and home. Sol and the
tiny planet that circled it was many light years away and visible
only as a faint dot among the myriad of stars even with his
"high-Mag" telescope. For a moment great sadness overcame Vince.
What he was doing was a form of suicide, even if he should
survive the fall, he may never see home again. Shaking off the
lonely, foreboding feeling, he remembered the goal of the
mission, to 'go where no one had gone before' and should he
survive, search for a way back if there was one to be found.
Every probe that was sent into the black abyss was never heard
from again. The odds were not good for him but he knew great
knowledge took great risk. He had volunteered for the mission
because he had no major ties to hold him in known space and
originally the concept awed him.

"Telemetry on, transmission at full strength, all systems read
optimal," Vince radioed back, not knowing whether or not they
could hear him.

"No time for cold feet now."as he strapped into the reclining
couch and positioned the control panel over himself. This was it!
POT, (point of transit). There was no longer the chance to back
out. He was now committed to going through. He was lying with the
axis of the ship, so the tidal force would travel through the
thinnest body section he could present. Even the ship itself was
to enter the event horizon on it's side.

"...five...fooouur...thhrreeeeee..." Was it his imagination or
was the ship beginning to dissolve in front of his eyes. The
monitors had turned black cutting off any view of what was
happening outside the ship. The bulkhead in front of him was
becoming transparent. The "Blind Spot" was appearing before his
eyes. He closed his eyes tightly and opened them just a slit,
only to find that more of the ship had been consumed. Vince found
himself holding his breath as the ship appeared to fade before
his eyes. Until...

"Funny, he thought, I still have atmosphere to breathe."

The control panel, just inches in front of him began to fade as
he drew back his hand in terror.

"Oh my God, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all." he
said out loud. All the fears for not going through with the
mission that he concealed, even from himself, now flooded his
mind. It was "your life flashing before your eyes" scenario.
Visions were flashing through his mind at such a rate that he
couldn't grasp hold of even one. Vince kept his eyes closed and
waited for the inevitable.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light so bright that pierced his
eyelids and bathed his entire body in a red imagined warmth. He
dared to open his eyes to the brilliance, only to find that it
did not hurt his eyes. The brilliant white light was all about
him. It shimmered and sparkled like handfuls of silver glitter
had been thrown into the air and was floating, tumbling,
weightless, all around. He tried to look at his hand, but in the
dazzling light could not see it. He couldn't make out any part of
the ship. All that was visible to his eyes was the twinkling
iridescence surrounding him. The fear vanished and in its place a
sense of awe and wonder and peace, great peace. How long he was
in that state he could not tell. Time seemed to stand still. He
had no reference points to compare time with motion. At length
the shimmering began to clear. Around him only that brilliant
white light fading. Space itself appeared to blink several times
and then, consuming darkness.

The old fear returned. Was he in the blackest part of the hole
again? Blind from that all consuming darkness. Alone with his
thoughts, his other senses numbed, Vince considered the option
that he had not survived. "How could he even hope to be alive
after being devoured by a black hole; a monster that dines on
stars with an unquenchable hunger. How could he have even hoped
to make it through this? How could he be having this conversation
with himself if...?"

Slowly the blackness began to fade, his eyes focused and the ship
was there, around him once again. The flashing lights returned
along with the sound of whirring servos and switches. Stars
reappeared in the monitors. Stars he had never seen before. Vince
broke out into hysterical laughter, tears streaming down his
face, "I made it...I made it! It can be done! I'll be damned." as
he unstrapped himself and danced around the cabin. With renewed
spirit he began to plot his location.

"No, that can't be right!" he ran the figures and observations
through the computer again, and yet again. Staring in disbelief,
Vince found himself entering a system of planets in NGC 147, a
galaxy two and a half million light years from the Milky Way and
home with no sign of the black hole that brought him here. He sat
frozen, dumb struck for long minutes as his mind tried to wrap
itself around what had just taken place, until...

"Phase II, yes Phase II." he thought, now begins the task of
finding the way back if that is possible.

"But first, I must explore." He turned back to the monitors only
to find the sensors alive with signals, intelligent signals.